If you really want to get down to the nuts and bolts of natural wine…
…then Wingnut Wines is a good place to start.
It’s the passion project-turned-runaway success of Papi’s Charlie Carr, a natural wine connoisseur who now runs an online store & subscription service, roving market stalls, and this: a bijou little wine shed in the middle of Netil Market. It’s here that you can drop in to pick his brains, pick up a bottle, and attend regular wine tastings where you can a) finally hear everything you’ve always wanted to know about natural wines (but were too afraid to ask), and b) drink some exceptionally delicious samples.
During the session, one of their knowledgeable staff will invite you to taste the rainbow with a hand-picked selection of low-intervention bottles, sharing their wisdom on the different wine-making methods as you go, but – and this is crucial – in a way that’s inevitably kept light, fun, and interesting. Wingnut’s whole MO is about sharing the under-represented growers (because, yes, even the relatively off-mainstream world of natural wine-making has its Casillero del Diablos), so you’ll almost certainly be drinking something you’ve never come across before.
After a welcome drink to ease you in, you’ll get to sample six wines, all told – with a cornucopia of olives, bread and olive oil on side to provide a little ballast. Then, once all the learning is out the way, everyone can get down to the important business of polishing off the bottles that have just been opened – and if you’ve discovered something you really like, you can take a bottle or two home with you at a 10% discount.
Which is a nice little bolt-on.
NOTE: Wingnut Wines is open on Saturdays, 10am-5pm, or you can book into a tasting right HERE.
Wingnut Wines | Netil Market, 13-23 Westgate St, London E8 3RU
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